News
App Preview: DSLR.Bot
iPhone users, rejoice. The folks over at Studio Canvas in Australia have written an app that effectively turns your already-amazing handsets into a killer IR remote control for your Canon camera without the use of a laptop. A statement from Alberto, the app developer:
DSLR.Bot gives you all the basic remote control function such as, immediate release and 2-second delay. Building further upon that we’ve created advance functions such as GPS logging for geo-tagging, Long Exposure, Time Lapse, and a Movie Mode that lets you create a shot list that can be emailed to several recipients. These tools are designed for both amateur and professional photographer/filmmaker.
Awesome, right? This opens up a whole new world of opportunities for camera sync methods, sharing clip times, and timelapses. You do need an IR transmitter for your phone to take advantage of these capabilities. These are available for purchase from the DSLR.bot website, or you can build your own by following this instructable.
We’re currently doing a thorough testing of the software, and will report back with a comprehensive review for your reading pleasure. In the meanwhile, give it a shot and let us know what you think! DSLR.bot is available in the App Store for $4.99.
DSLR.bot ($4.99, iPhone 3G or higher/iPod Touch)
Freebies | MP3 to AIFF Droplet
If you’ve ever tried editing a video using your favorite song in Final Cut Pro, then you know how annoying it is to work with MP3’s in your timeline. Extra pops and clicks and relentless rendering can make for an editor’s nightmare. Final Cut is never happy editing with MP3’s – Apple recommends using their AIFF file format for any audio editing you may perform.
Fortunately, if you have Final Cut Studio, then you also have Compressor, Apple’s excellent solution to solve all of your transcoding and conversion needs.
There’s a neat feature inside Compressor that lets you create a droplet – or, simply, a drag-and-drop script that enables you to perform sometimes complex automated tasks with a simple interaction.
I’ve created a droplet to convert an MP3 to a 16-bit, 48kHz AIFF file. All you need to do is drag your MP3 file on top of the script icon in your finder and Compressor will do the rest. Your newly converted file will appear in the same folder that your MP3 is located. (Note: you must have Compressor installed for this droplet to work.)
More to come. Enjoy!
MP3 to AIFF Droplet (Mac only)
DSLR Remote Pro
Back in May, Breeze Systems updated their popular DSLR Remote Pro for Mac application to support video capture for the T2i.
Movies are captured directly to the camera’s memory card and can be controlled and monitored from the computer using the live view display. After capture, movie files can be downloaded to the computer and automatically deleted from the memory card to free up space.
Focus can also be adjusted from the PC during video capture and the live view window can be zoomed during preview for critical focusing.
We gave the software a shot and were surprised to see how solid it worked with the T2i. It responds much quicker than Canon’s EOS utility and offers greater control of time lapses (you can tell it to take pictures until a certain time and how many pictures a second, and it figures out the rest) HDR bracketing (even so far as allowing for HDR timelapses) and even gives the ability to take pictures and save them directly to the computer’s hard drive. Pretty sweet.
DSLR Remote Pro is available for $129 for both Windows and Mac operating systems. There is also a free trial available for those looking to give it a spin.
Magic Lantern adds T2i Support
A few weeks back, Trammell Hudson, developer of the popular third-party firmware Magic Lantern, announced preliminary alpha software for the Canon T2i. When this firmware is installed on the camera, it is meant to add more professional video features that Canon did not include in the stock release.
Current features include onscreen audio meters and lens data computation, but features in development are even more intriguing. The firmware will add manual audio control, headphone monitoring via the A/V jack, crop marks, and, my personal favorite, zebra stripes/waveform/histogram.
Trammell has posted a video demonstrating the boot into the Magic Lantern firmware and initial audio metering. He has also released a statement, where you can choose to participate in alpha-build testing.
We at T2ivideo.com will most likely wait for a more stable release, but want to hear your thoughts. Will you try the firmware? Do you have any suggestions for additional features? Let us know in the comments.
New Content
We’ve been away for a while (getting new jobs!) but want to get this thing rolling further. We’ve had some great support and response thus far, but would like to ask: What would you guys like to see more of on this site? Feel free to comment below.
Dave
